Who's Up For a Game of Musical Houses?

If you think Trivial Pursuit or chess are challenging games, you’ve obviously never tried to wrap your head around the game Russell is getting ready to play--Musical Houses. The music won’t really start for another year, but Russell is still preparing for one of the most complicated, short distance moves in history! It is, what my granny would have referred to as a “fruit basket turnover” as Russell and Iris prepare to move into a new house, Allen and Trish prepare to move into Russell and Iris’s current house, with Allen and Trish’s current home becomes storage space. Got it? If not, be thankful you don’t have to pull this off.

Once this year’s shipping containers arrive, their contents will be stored in the house which is currently under construction. That means any work Russell wants to accomplish before next March has to be completed before the end of November. That’s when the bounty of backpacks and other supplies should arrive from the States.

Now, this big construction push would be easier if this was the only thing going on in Russell’s life. But that is far from the case. November will be the middle of coffee harvest. The regular ministries are continuing. So, Russell is juggling his job as the Bob Villa of home owners with his career as a very busy missionary.

Russell’s father-in-law has finished all of the exterior doors. The windows are also completed. He is currently finishing the interior doors. Last week, security bars went up on all the windows. It’s important to have the house as secure as possible because of the aforementioned contents of shipping containers, which will be stored there.  

Currently, Russell and two other guys are hard at work laying ceramic tile in the new house. For the next month, two men will be laying tile on a full-time basis. The lofty goal is to have that job finished before the containers arrive.

As Russell explained the logistics of this move, my head almost started spinning. Essentially, they will need to pull off three simultaneous moves. If all goes well, the moves will take place before Allen returns home from his planned U.S. trip in the fall of 2018. I would love to adequately explain the process, but even I don’t understand the notes I took of Russell’s description of how everyone’s stuff is supposed to end up in the right place. I do know it will involve a fair amount of labeling and color coding boxes.

The good news is the houses are only a few hundred feet away from each other. That should make it easier in case Allen opens up his sock drawer to find it’s full of R.J.’s toys. Something tells me, the music may have to start and stop a few times before everyone’s belongings are in their new home! - posted by Christi